100% US tariffs coming for India? Lindsey Graham’s Russia Sanctions Bill Clears First Hurdle in Senate | Today’s news
The US Senate on Tuesday introduced a sweeping Russian energy sanctions bill that could give US President Donald Trump the power to impose tough sanctions on Russian officials as well as up to 100% tariffs on countries like India and China to discourage them from buying Russian oil and gas.
The bill was passed soon after the funeral of the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who authored it. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi also attended Graham’s funeral in Washington. Graham has been one of Ukraine’s most vocal advocates in Washington DC in its war against Russia.
86 senators voted in favor of the proposal and 12 against. The bill seeks to impose sanctions on Russian government officials as well as empower the government to impose up to 100% tariffs on nations such as India, China and other countries to force them to limit their purchases of Russian oil and gas.
US President Donald Trump said he would support the measure after asking that sanctions on Iran be added to it, which they have. The US has now been at war with Iran for more than five months, with a final ceasefire agreement still out of reach.
Although Democrats generally support the sanctions, the authority Trump could gain to impose tariffs has raised concerns among them about potentially higher import costs affecting Americans. Those concerns threaten the prospect of the legislation passing the Senate and House of Representatives when they resume in September.
Once the bill becomes law, Trump will not only gain the power to impose up to 100% tariffs on India, Japan and some members of the European Union, but will also have the ability to lift them if he chooses.
Some Democrats said they would oppose the bill, according to a Reuters report. The bill must survive another procedural vote in the U.S. Senate before final passage. It will then be taken up by the House of Representatives, which will consider the bill when it reconvenes in September.
Backdoor Authority for Trump or Deterrence for Russia?
“This is not so much a sanctions bill as a massive backdoor for President Trump to impose additional tariffs, including on our European allies, that hurt American families,” Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in a statement shortly after the legislation was released last month.
However, supporters of the bill believe the tariffs will be narrow enough to do their intended job of reducing Russia’s energy revenue in a way that affects their funds for the war in Ukraine without negative consequences for Americans.
They believe the bill is the best chance the U.S. Congress has to pass legislation to support Ukraine, and that a strong bipartisan vote in the Senate would give it momentum to pass the House in the fall.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, who is a co-sponsor of the bill and has traveled to Ukraine with Graham on a number of occasions, said at a news conference after the vote: “This bill is the one that will pass. The president will sign this bill.”
